Oh my goodness!
I am all done with Semester at Sea Summer Voyage 2010. It is hard to put into words what this summer has been and meant to me, so, instead of trying to, I will sum up the last couple of days on the ship first.
We had a day of reflection and packing after the Alumni Ball. Packing was a stressful experience. You travel to all of these places and just start buying without thinking, I have to get this stuff home. I regretted that today when I walked only 3 blocks to the hotel from the ship and about died because we had 7 bags between 2 people, haha. (Five of them with wheels and two back packs). It was rough fitting it all in, but when I was done I was proud of myself, but it was one of my first signs that the end was near.
On the 19th, the work study students had an appreciation, which was nice. We got to go up to the teacher’s lounge and eat. The campus store supervisor, Yvonne, gave me a certificate for anything in the store for free. It was a very nice gesture.
The last full day on the ship we had convocation and then a mandatory meeting on how to get off the ship and what to expect. It was nice. I had a speech for convocation, which I will post at the end of this blog. Jack and I gave it together. They had asked me, but Jack is pretty darn good speaker so I asked if she’d join me. It went very well, surprisingly ended with a standing ovation.
This morning we got off the ship in the order that we placed in Sea Olympics. We first had to say goodbye to some of Jack’s girlfriends. They were great, and we will both miss them dearly. We got off second, which was nice, but at the same time, I had some difficulty leaving. I was excited to be on the way home, Lord knows I miss my dog (oh yeah, my family too) but, this trip has been special, and I met some good people and made some great friends. When we got off and I finally had to say goodbye to my roommate, John, I couldn’t. It was hard to say goodbye to the kid because he was such a great friend and roommate. I just kind of hugged him. Jack said goodbye for me, and we went our separate directions. I am hoping him and I and some others are able to get back together sometime in the future.
Most people we knew got flights out today, but Jack and I have ours out tomorrow. We hung out with some friends from California, a couple, James and Shelby. They are nice and we hung out with them this evening. They are in the hotel with us, sharing rooms to make everything cheaper. Tomorrow, we head out for Tucson, and on Monday, I start school. The following Monday, I start work.
It is hard to say that a month ago I was in Turkey, and now, I will be in school on Monday. In the past two months, I have experienced more than most will in a lifetime. I understand the value to that, but I have yet to discover all that it can and will bring. I am excited for the future. I hope to travel again to many of the places I went to and hopefully make a difference in some of the ways that life is lived there. Neoliberal policies give great power to young American businessmen and women.
It is hard to sum up this summer. I won’t try. If you run into me, I will probably talk your ear off. I am sorry. I can’t say I have a favorite port. They were all great. If you make me:
Best Food: Greece (Other than Italy, it almost shouldn’t count)
Best History: Italy (Maybe Egypt)
Best Overall Experience: Egypt (Great friends, great memories, Great Pyramids)
Best Adventure: Croatia
Best Deals: Morocco
Best Strange Architecture: Spain
Best Port (If I had to): Turkey
I love and miss all of my friends. I will be excited to be back in Tucson. I appreciate you for reading this blog. If you truly kept up with it and read most of it, then you should be congratulated, checked out for being slow, or instituionalized, because I wrote over 31,000 words in this blog, I added some more photographs to my MobileMe gallery and as well as some videos. You should check out the videos. I worked decently hard on them and I think they do a good job rehashing the trip, even better than the photos.
gallery.me.com/jamest4
Here is our (Jack and I) speech (more or less, this was more of an outline of what we said):
Convocation Speech: Numbers
Good afternoon and congratulations on becoming Semester at Sea Alumni. As business students, we felt that the best way to sum up our trip was through some numbers:
Before we get started, we would like to thank Tom Jelke for providing all of these statistics for us.
95 pick-pockets from all the ports this summer, mostly in Barcelona
14 the number of passports lost, of which 11 were found and 3 replaced
11748 nautical miles traveled
2825 cumulative minutes spent in Global Studies
8580 Minutes of dock-time given
1786 toasties, of course about 1/3 of those were from Patrick Fogarty
4140 Burgers purchased from the pool bar as well as
24 Ping Pong Balls Lost
8540 Miles ran on the treadmills
933 Itinerary T-shirts sold
542 times that Pursers bailed us out of forgetting our ID cards in our rooms
124 Replaced ID cards
105 Meals were eaten on the ship
43920 ounces of Peanut butter was consumed
15372 Boxes of cereal for breakfast
3995 Cans of beer
4115 Glasses of wine
41, 020 Pages of paper printed, sorry trees
52 Explorer Seminars Held -
9602 Total tickets sold for SAS trips
400 condoms taken
937 visits to the clinic
31247 hours of metered internet
$500,000 to fully refuel the MV Explorer
But we know that not all of the aspects of our trip are quantifiable. It would be hard to get a count on the amount of
New friends you made
The times you laughed or smiled
The number of great stories you heard
worthwhile memories made
So what does all of this add up to?
An experience that you will never forget and I am sure you personally grew from in one way or another.
So, please, we encourage you to do 3 things
First, Spend however long you need and quietly think and reflect on some of the non-tangible gains that you will take away from this voyage, friends, memories, or perspective-changing experiences. These are things you’ll want to remember. They are the things that have changed who you are.
Second, Write a thank you note to someone on the ship that made this voyage worth while for you, it could be a classmate, a friend, a crew member, faculty, or anyone truly and let them know how appreciative you are for the impact they had on you. They made this summer great. Let them know you’re grateful for it.
And finally, Take the fire from this experience, go out and learn more about the world and the cultures around you. We encourage you to let this trip take you to new heights in regards to your current perspectives and your future endeavors.
This summer has been incredible. A life-changing experience. Don’t ever forget Semester at Sea Summer 2010 Voyage.
Thank you.
